PARTNER NEWS: STMicroelectronics has begun shipping the ST25R3916, an NFC universal device that contains “innovative features to simplify the design of payment terminals and ease compliance with new EMVCo 3.0 contactless interoperability tests for cards, mobiles, and wearables.”... More

Smart fabrics made possible by new metal deposition technique — Imperial College London — “Imperial researchers have devised a way to deposit metals onto fabrics and used it to insert sensors and batteries into these materials… The technique could be used to incorporate batteries, wireless technologies and sensors into fabrics like paper and cotton textiles… For example, they created silver coil antennas on paper, which can be used for data and power transmission in wireless devices such as Oyster cards and contactless payment systems.”

Dynamics Inc, global banks, payments networks, and telecommunications carriers unveil Wallet Card — Dynamics — “With almost 200 internal components, this Internet of Things device incorporates a number of cutting-edge technologies including: A cell phone chip and cell phone antenna so data can be transferred between Wallet Card and the bank anywhere in the world and at any time of the day; A battery and organic recharging chip so that the card charges itself through normal operation. Wallet Card can last indefinitely without the need for the consumer to perform any physical action.”

PARTNER NEWS: STMicroelectronics has launched a new NFC payments module which is designed to overcome the space and cost constraints faced by wearable devices makers by integrating a miniaturized contactless radio booster with a secure microcontroller in a 4mm by 4mm package... More

The latest edition of the Apple Watch will come with a version that includes built-in support for cellular communications, enabled via a built-in “electronic SIM”, Apple COO Jeff Williams has revealed... More

An in-depth presentation on STMicroelectronics’ ST25R NFC reader family that sets out the technical requirements for integrating NFC services in a wide variety of markets including payments, access control, connected homes and automotive applications is now available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More

Researchers create a T-shirt that monitors the wearer’s breathing rate in real time — Université Laval — “The key to the smart T-shirt is an antenna sewn in at chest level that’s made of a hollow optical fiber coated with a thin layer of silver on its inner surface. The fiber’s exterior surface is covered in a polymer that protects it against the environment… As the wearer breathes in, the smart fiber senses the increase in both thorax circumference and the volume of air in the lungs… These changes modify some of the resonant frequency of the antenna.”

Customers of Australian bank Westpac will soon be able to use an innovative replacement for the default keyboard found in social messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to make P2P money transfers to friends, family and businesses as well as send cardless cash codes to recipients for ATM withdrawals. More

The group of Australian banks arguing for the right to collectively negotiate with Apple over the introduction of Apple Pay in the country have dropped their request to jointly arrange how to “pass-through” additional fees Apple imposes on its mobile payment service, and will now focus solely on gaining access to the NFC functionality within the iPhone... More

PARTNER NEWS: STMicroelectronics (ST) will use its July acquisition of NFC and RFID products, resources, technologies and intellectual property from AMS to create a new generation of high-performance NFC solutions for both mass-market and vertical-market applications, the company’s Sylvain Fidelis and Mark Dickson have told NFC World... More

Fully flexible NFC antennas made from graphene could match the performance of conventional metallic antennas, making connected wearable devices cheaper and more energy-efficient, a consortium backed by the European Commission says... More

PARTNER NEWS: Chip maker AMS has sold its NFC and RFID reader product lines to STMicroelectronics. AMS will continue to retain ownership of its NFC/RFID tag business, including the AS3955 NFC interface chip (NFiC) which AMS unveiled in May 2015. More

Athletes at this year’s Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be given an NFC payments ring linked to a Visa account that will let them make purchases by tapping their hand against contactless terminals. More

Researches from the University of Washington, Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University have created a way to give a piece of paper sensing capabilities that enable it to respond to gesture commands and connect to the digital world using RFID tags that can be stuck, printed or drawn on the paper. More

Customers of Poland’s Bank Pekao with a Windows 10 Mobile device can now use the bank’s PeoPay host card emulation (HCE) based mobile payment service to make transactions at any contactless terminal... More

PARTNER NEWS: A new reference design for wearables from processor designer ARM includes high-performance NFC technology from AMS that enables small-footprint devices with tiny antennas to couple with NFC readers as easily and reliably as a contactless card... More

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